And he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” And He said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:42-43
How do you want someone to describe you? How would you want someone to remember you? Before you answer this question, let’s imagine that someone is writing about your life. Someone is describing not what you achieved, but how you lived. Most obituaries or testimonials on someone’s life include their achievements, but for this one, it would be a description of how you lived, not what you did.
Imagine someone writes three sentences about your life.
They loved. . .
They cared about . . .
They were known for . . .
What would you hope someone wrote about you as they finished these sentences? Is the life you’re living now moving in that direction or not?
If someone was going to describe me in five words, I would hope they would use words like accessible, responsible, fun, faithful and generous. This is how I would hope to be described and remembered by others. If God was to describe me in five words, would these be His five words? Because I may believe I am these things, and others may believe I am these things, but does God believe I am these things? Does God think I am faithful, generous, responsible?
What five words would you want others to use in describing you? Are you living a life that reflects these things?
I didn’t use the word “loving” in my five words, but if I truly live those five words, that reflects a life of love—loving God (faithful) and loving others (accessible, responsible, fun, generous). My five words are a worthy goal for me. I’m not sure I am all those things all the time. I’d like to be.
You could take the concept of the five words and write five words that would describe you as a spouse, a parent, a co-worker, a member of a church, and as a faithful Christian. These are some of the words that would hopefully make the list.
Spouse—patient, forgiving, faithful, fun, present
Parent—patient, fun, encouraging, present, helpful
Co-worker—dependable, responsible, patient, accessible, fun
Member of a church—faithful, generous, welcoming, engaged, consistent
Christian—Faithful, consistent, obedient, repentant, hopeful
If you were to take the different roles you play in your life and write five words you hope would describe you, what would those words be? Would others write those same words about you in those roles? Would God agree with your choice of words?
Let’s focus just on the last two—how we present ourselves as Christians and as members of a church community. To love God is to be obedient to the commandments, to repent when we are not, to be faithful to the message, consistent in our practice and hopeful about the outcome. I’m sure there are other words we could put here, but these are my five. To be involved in a church community is to stay faithful to the message, be generous in supporting the church with one’s stewardship, to be welcoming to new people, to be engaged (not just present but engaged in what is going on) and to be consistent about that.
To love our neighbor incorporates things we are ideally doing in our church community. It would include things like being consistent, being encouraging, being generous, being available and being aware of what our neighbors need.
Do you consider yourself generous when it comes to loving your neighbor, serving others, and supporting the church? Would God agree with you?
Most of us reading this message belong to a church community. How would you want God to describe your church community? As giving? Generous? Just getting by? Welcoming? If God looked at your church community, how would He describe it? If we think about it, we probably all have an idea for how we would want God to describe our church community, and we should endeavor to make our community not only something we are proud of, or something that others would be proud of, but a community that God would be proud of.
We are all works in progress and should see ourselves as such. No one is perfect, but we are working our way to perfection. And this starts with inward reflection and outward improvement, and we should be consistent in doing both.
Today’s Scripture verses are from Luke 23:42-43. They are the dialogue between Jesus and a thief on the cross. If someone were to describe that thief in five words as he hung on that cross, they would probably have used words like failure, useless, violent, unworthy, and loser. And perhaps they would have been right. When the thief turned to Jesus in repentance, Jesus found him worthy, hopeful, repentant, trusting, and humble, and that was enough for Jesus to reassure the man “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
At the end of our life, it won’t really matter how we see ourselves, or how others see us, but how God sees us. We should think carefully how we would want God to describe us, and then start living that way today.
Lord, help me to have the humility to look inwardly at who I really am and who I really want to be. Help me to treat others in a way that matches how I would hope they would see me. And most especially, help me to live my life in a way that pleases You, so that how I hope You see me is the way you will really see me. Please remember me, my faults and all, when You enter into Your Kingdom. Amen.
How do you want to be remembered by others? How do you hope to be remembered by God?
